Blood on the Snow
by synodicstar
Summary: Haruka finds Kiryu after her premiere at the Tokyo Dome. A couple of short scenes to fill in some of the blanks between Yakuza 5 and 6.


Haruka's hands, numb from the cold, fumbled with her phone. It slipped from her grasp and landed in the snow.

"Just hold on, Uncle," she said, snatching it back up. She dialed 119 and took Kiryu's hand with her free one. He weakly tucked it against his bare chest. He was so cold, barely discernible from the powder falling on the ground around them.

"Yes," Haruka said once emergency services picked up. "I need an ambulance! Yes, that's my location. My uncle is hurt." She clutched his hand more tightly. "I don't know what happened, but there's a lot of blood." She felt her throat closing up. "Please, come quickly."

She left the call open but lowered the phone to her lap.

"They're on the way," she said, smiling through her tears.

"Your premiere…" Kiryu said. He was barely conscious now. "Your fans…"

"I did it, Uncle. For everyone counting on me" Haruka was shivering in her thin costume. "But I'm with you now. I'll always be with you."

He didn't answer.

"Uncle?" Haruka brushed the snow off of his face. The lines between his eyes had grown deeper in the years they were apart, and silver threaded through his hair at his temples. They had been separated for far too long, and all of it was because of her.

She curled up beside his body, still clutching his hand. "I haven't told you about my new dream yet. We're together in Okinawa," she whispered into his side, feeling like she was nine years old again, feeling like she was watching another parent die. "We'll be back at Morning Glory with all of the others. In the afternoons I'll go to the market. Ayako and I will make dinner for everyone and we'll be happy. It's what I've wanted all this time, I just had to leave to realize it." She closed her eyes and felt his breathing slow. "I'm ready to go home."

The EMTs lifted Haruka with strong arms, cradling her like an infant. They placed her on the nearby sidewalk. Her brain felt foggy as they asked her questions. The most she could manage in response were monosyllabic answers, nodding and shaking her head as she watched them lift Kiryu onto a stretcher and carry him into the ambulance. Someone tucked a scratchy, woolen blanket around her shoulders.

Something about the feeling of it fixated in her mind where nothing else would. She rubbed her frozen fingers over the material until the feeling started to come back. What had she done? Had she just announced her yakuza ties in front of the entire country? She shivered, deflecting the consequences of it.

She had to focus on Uncle Kaz. Nothing else mattered. She climbed into the back of the ambulance after him, taking the EMTs hand as they helped her up.

###

The ride was a blur. They were hurried into the hospital in a whirl of nurses and doctors until Kiryu was taken away. Haruka found herself sitting alone in the waiting room, still wrapped in the blanket.

"Miss?" A nurse joined her. She was a professional-she didn't blink at Haruka's flashy outfit. "I need some information about the patient you accompanied. What is his name?" She held a pen over forms on a clipboard.

"Um," Haruka said, pushing herself into an upright position. "Kazuma Kiryu."

"Date of birth?"

"1968… June 17."

The pen hesitated over the clipboard as the woman paused. "What is your relation to the patient?"

Haruka tried out a weak smile. She felt it falter, weak on her lips from worry. "He's my guardian. Well, he raised me at the orphanage. I consider him to be my father." The words were still new on her lips, the second time she had announced her connection to the ex-yakuza in the past few hours.

"Thank you." The nurse returned her smile. "Please, make yourself comfortable. There is coffee if you would like some. We will let you know once he is in a room."

Haruka slumped in the chair as soon as the nurse was gone. She felt foolish, sitting alone in her costume among serious families and nurses.

She must have drifted off because she awoke to a light hand on her shoulder. She shifted and saw that her coat was draped over her lap. "Did you…?"

"Your voice coach brought the coat by a few minutes ago," Akiyama said, falling into the chair next to her. "She had to leave to try to get ahead of the media shit-storm that's headed our way."

"Oh," Haruka said, lowering her head. "Mr. Akiyama, you should have woken me sooner. I owe Ms. Yamaura an apology."

"Ah, all that's out of your hands now. I thought it was best to let you sleep." Akiyama scratched his head. "But Kiryu's in a room now. Why don't you go to him while I talk to the doctor?"

She sat forward and shrugged her coat over her shoulders. "Thank you."

###

The room was easy enough to find from the directions he gave her. She pushed the door open on silent hinges and walked softly to the chair beside the bed. Uncle Kaz looked so haggard and washed out. She sat gingerly on the edge of the chair and leaned forward, her forehead on the mattress beside him.

"Please wake up," she said softly. "I can't do this without you."

The next few hours passed in that way, with Haruka silently clutching her guardian's hand as if she anchored him to this world, and nurses coming by to check his vitals. Akiyama visited once with good news from the doctors-Kiryu would get better in a few days. But there was a crease of worry between his eyes, and Haruka had heard him talking to two distinct male voices-Saejima and Majima of the Tojo clan-in the corridor outside. Kiryu might have been out of immediate danger, but Haruka wasn't blind to the troubles that followed him wherever he went.

The sheets on the bed shifted and Kiryu let out a long breath. Haruka jerked her head up and stood so she could hover over him. "Uncle Kaz?"

His jaw worked before his lips parted. "So it wasn't a dream," he said hoarsely.

Haruka smiled down at him. She felt suddenly shy after their time apart and hesitated to take his hand again now that he was lucid. "I was so worried about you.

"I seem to have a habit of doing that."

"But I must have worried you, too. When I heard you were here, in Kamurocho…"

The fact that he hadn't tried to push himself up into a more dignified position spoke to how weak he was. He turned his face away from her, his emotions working behind his stoic mask.

She didn't push him. They sat together in silence until he spoke to the wall. "I had to do it, I couldn't let anything happen to your dream."

"I told them about you," Haruka blurted. "On stage. I told them you were my family."

A crack in the facade, something welling up behind his lashes.

She couldn't stop the words now that she started. "I told them I was retiring. I couldn't lie to them. Uncle Kaz, I'm so sorry." She bowed her head so she couldn't see the disappointment. "After all the sacrifices you, Ms. Park, Mr. Akiyama, and everyone else made for me…"

"It was your choice to make," Kiryu said. The breath caught in Haruka's throat. "That's what it means to be a parent." He turned back to look at her, serious. "You make sacrifices for your family. Whether it's for their dreams, or just so they _can_ make that choice. I'm proud of you."

Haruka didn't try to stop the tears. She sniffed, wiping them with the sleeve of her coat. "I'm sorry."

"That's enough," Kiryu said. "What were you saying about a new dream?" A smile didn't pass Kiryu's lips, but one didn't need to. Haruka saw everything she needed to in his eyes. She nodded, took his hand and began to explain.


End file.
